Explore how extreme climate shifts 900,000 years ago—featuring prolonged cold periods and devastating droughts across Africa and Eurasia—nearly wiped out our ancestors, reducing human population by 98.7% for over 100,000 years.

From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco
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From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco

Lena: Hey Miles, have you ever thought about how close humanity might have come to extinction? I was reading this mind-blowing research that suggests our ancestors nearly disappeared from Earth about 900,000 years ago.
Miles: It's absolutely fascinating, Lena. According to this new study in Science, our human ancestors experienced what geneticists call a "bottleneck" where the breeding population crashed to just about 1,280 individuals.
Lena: Wait, seriously? From how many before that?
Miles: The research suggests the population dropped from somewhere between 58,000 and 135,000 individuals. We're talking about a 98.7% reduction in population that lasted for around 117,000 years!
Lena: That's terrifying! I mean, we were basically hanging by a thread for over 100,000 years. What could possibly cause such a catastrophic decline?
Miles: That's exactly what makes this discovery so intriguing. The timeline coincides with a major climate shift during what scientists call the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition—a period of extreme cold and extended droughts across Africa and Eurasia.
Lena: So our ancestors were nearly wiped out by climate change? That feels eerily relevant today.
Miles: Right, and it may have completely reshaped human genetic diversity. Let's explore what this bottleneck might tell us about human evolution and how our ancestors managed to survive when they were literally on the brink of extinction.